Richmond, E. B., trans.
London : Hesperus Poetry, 2004.
Facing-page translation of PF and nineteen short poems and lyrics by Chaucer, with introduction and brief notes. The translations maintain Chaucer's metrical forms and, where possible, original rhymes, while normalizing spelling and modernizing…
McCall, John P., and George Rudisill, Jr.
Journal of English and Germanic Philology 58 (1959): 276-88.
Argues that Chaucer's personal experience of the 1386 Parliament influenced his depiction of parliamentary activity in TC (4.141ff.), detailing events of the historical parliament, Chaucer's likely feelings about it, and changes and additions Chaucer…
Brewer, D. R., ed.
London and Edinburgh: Nelson, 1960.
An edition of PF based on University of Cambridge Library MS Gg.4.27, with end-of-text textual and explanatory notes, modern punctuation, and original spelling. The Introduction (pp. 1-68) presents the poem as the "best of Chaucer's shorter poems,"…
Bennett, J. A. W.
Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. 2d ed. 1965.
Reads PF as a thematic exploration of Christian love infused with Neoplatonic thought and imagery, and influenced by Cicero, Macrobius, Alain de Lille, John de Meun, and Dante. Demonstrates the poem's tight verbal structure and its allusiveness,…
Kuntz, Robert Allen.
Dissertation Abstracts International 42 (1981): 1141A.
Critical views of the Pardoner range from total condemnation to interpretations of him as Christlike, with current views seeing him as evil. Interpretations can be immediate, direct, and simple, or complicated sociopsychologically or…
Middle English reading of PardPT (6.327-966), FranPT (complete), and NPT (complete), with introductory notes by Derek Brewer in accompanying booklet. Read by Richard Bebb; edited by Sarah Butcher. Recorded at Motivation Sound Studios, London.
Swortzell, Lowell.
Plays: The Drama Magazine for Young People 74.5 (2015): 23-28, 64.
One-act play for eight child actors adapted from PardT, with Chaucer speaking directly to the Pardoner at the opening and closing of the plot. Production notes indicate a running time of approximately 20 minutes.
Kelly, Henry Ansgar.
R. F. Yeager and Charlotte C. Morse, eds. Speaking Images: Essays in Honor of V. A. Kolve (Asheville, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 2001), pp. 411-44.
Kelly re-considers the Pardoner's sexuality in light of biblical imagery, medieval medical lore, and fifteenth-century reception of PardT, arguing that implications of effeminacy in GP suggest neither homosexuality nor sterility but sexual…
The headwear of the Wife of Bath and of the Pardoner, in light of I Cor. 11:3-12, links the two pilgrims symbolically, both rejecting their proper sex roles and thus simultaneously flouting Paul's distinction between male and female and literalizing…
The vernicle, an image of Christ, reminds us that man is made in God's image, and emphasizes the Pardoner's perversion of that image, both morally and spiritually. Yet it also provides hope that the Pardoner may reform himself.
Parsons, Ben.
Tatjana Silec, ed. Voix (et Voies) du Désordre au Moyen Âge. Volume Issu du Colloque du Centre d'Études Médiévales Anglaises de Paris-Sorbonne (22-23 Mars 2012). AMAES, no. 34. (Paris: Association des Médiévistes Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur, 2013), pp. 81-108.
Focuses on the popularity of the Pardoner's character and on the connection between Chaucer and the "Beryn"-poet.
A novel set in modern Kenya, involving three friends who find a cache of money that "disrupts their happy relationship." The epigraph quotes PardP 6.324-28.
Lawton, D. A.
G. A. Wilkes and A. P. Riemer, eds. Studies in Chaucer. (Sydney: University of Sydney, 1981), pp. 38-63.
Explicates PardT with a concern for the division between the tale proper (lines 463-903) and its frame. The tale is structurally a digression, theologically orthodox, but unconvenional in "tone," and is to be taken seriously.
Copley, Paul, adapter.
Swain, Holly, illus.
Irene Yates, compiler. The Pardoner's Tale and Other Plays (Oxford: Heinemann Educational Publishers, 1999), pp. 20-25.
Modernizes and adapts PardT for children as a drama in six scenes. The Pardoner as narrator speaks in prose and the characters, generally, speak in rhymed pentameter couplets. Features three "ruffians" (named Joker, Jack, and Ace), an Innkeeper, an…
Study guide to PardPT and the Pardoner's description in the GP, with a running commentary (text not included), survey of topics and themes, suggestions for essay writing, a chronology, and supplemental materials
Croft, Steven, ed.
Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,2006.
Textbook edition of PardPT and the GP description of the Pardoner. Includes glosses and discursive notes (at the back of the book) and discussion of approaches to the text: sources and analogues, characterization, assessment of theme and topic, and…
Study guide to PardPT and to the GP description of the Pardoner that first summarizes Chaucer's biography, his language (including a list of "difficult or confusable words") and writings, and his literary context. Includes a summary/commentary on the…
Twombly, Robert G.
Chaucer Review 36 (2002): 250-69.
Examines the rioters' encounter with the Old Man in PardT in light of Dominican meditation on death as a form of "affective psychology," exemplified in Henry Suso's "The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom." In this genre, "meeting" Death is a means to…
Windeatt, Barry.
London: Longman York Press, 1980.
Summary (without text) and commentary on PardPT, arranged in sections, accompanied by glosses to Middle English phrases. Also includes a brief introduction to Chaucer and his literature, commentary on source materials of PardPT, its characterization…
Pedagogical commentary on PardPT, based on A. C. Spearing's 1965 edition (text not included). McCarthy emphasizes the "gothic" elements of PardPT and summarizes the poem in sections, offering section-by-section commentary, along with sidebar glosses,…
Conlee, John W.
Studies in the Humanities 3.1 (1973): 1-3.
Suggests that the Pardoner's specification of "eight" bushels of treasure at PardT 6.771 symbolizes betrayal and the irony of desiring to achieve ultimate happiness through worldly means.
